WASHINGTON — American democracy, once the wonder of the world, is
working about as well as the levees around New Orleans — "degenerated
into a partisan brew of spin, scandal, name-calling, money chasing and
pandering."

That's the charge of reform advocate Steven Hill, and who is to doubt
his indictment? Elections are marred by suspicious voting equipment. TV
blanks out most serious campaign debate. Congressional and state
legislative elections are increasingly less competitive as "red" and
"blue" voters cluster in their own partisan enclaves. The presidential
election system focuses all attention on a tiny band of swing states —
and can easily make the popular-vote loser the winner. Citizens
increasingly wonder: Why bother to vote at all?

What's to be done? In his new book, "10 Steps to Repair American
Democracy," Hill abjures piecemeal reform and instead provides a "
'one-stop shopping guide' to what's broken about American democracy and
how Americans can help fix it."

From Hill's list of 10, I'd pick five indispensable first steps:

Secure the vote. Butterfly ballots and hanging chads in Florida in
2000, thousands of low-income voters effectively excluded from polls in
Ohio in 2004 — the scandals are well-known. A comprehensive Caltech-MIT
study found a stunning 6 percent of ballots cast nationwide in 2000
weren't counted because of faulty voting machines, poorly designed
ballots or foul-ups with absentee ballots. Private voting-machine
companies have been shown to have egregious partisan ties.

Hill would have us create — with federal dollars to help — a new,
professionalized cadre of professional election officials free of
direction by partisanly chosen or motivated secretaries of state. A
national elections commission would be empowered to create minimum
standards that states must follow to assure honest elections. And
there'd be a "voter-verified voter trail" for ballots cast by
computerized voting equipment, ensuring honest recounts.

His next proposal: expand voter participation by a "right to vote"
constitutional amendment, universal registration (everyone 18 and over
automatically registered to vote, as most modern democracies do) and
prohibiting voter intimidation.

Reclaiming the airwaves comes next — obliging broadcasters to provide
ample free media time for candidates, more political news and balanced
coverage. Hill also urges a more-robust public broadcast sector to
counterbalance our increasingly powerful corporate media.

To minimize the overbearing role of money in elections, Hill suggests
public financing of all campaigns at local, state and federal levels,
and at least trying to limit donations and set spending caps on
candidates.

There's one more reform on Hill's list I'd call absolutely essential:
direct popular election of the president. Sticking with the Founding
Fathers' jury-rigged Electoral College system makes zero 21st century
sense.

Hill then has three reforms I'd call intriguing next steps, experiments we ought to try.

First there's runoff voting, now being used in San Francisco's mayoral
elections, Utah Republican primaries and other places. Voters list
their preferences — No. 1, No. 2, etc. If no candidate gets a majority
of the No. 1 choices, immediate recounts include voters' second or even
third choices. The lowest vote-getter is eliminated on each count until
there's a majority. The method has big pluses: diminished campaign
mudslinging, incentives for higher voter turnout and less impact by
spoiler candidates (such as Ralph Nader in 2000).

Hill would also scrap — especially for legislative races — the
"winner-take-all" election system that so often leaves political
minorities and our many racial and ethnic groups unrepresented. His
model: Illinois' success, from 1870 to 1980, with three-seat state
House districts. Voters could cast all their three votes for one
candidate, or distribute them as they chose. Result: Any candidate who
got over 25 percent was likely to win. More mavericks, willing to buck
their party's leadership, got elected. Bipartisan coalitions were
commonplace.

Now Hill suggests three-seat districts, not just for legislatures but
congressional seats too, a big break for "blues" in "red" areas and
"reds" in "blue" areas, plus election of more Latino and black
representatives.

Hearing this spate of ideas, some may grouse: Why change the ground
rules? Didn't our Founding Fathers know best? Yet in his introduction
to Hill's book, Hendrick Hertzberg of The New Yorker has it right.
Reinvigorating the republic is a way to keep faith. "The question
isn't: What way back then, did Jefferson (and Madison and Hamilton) do?
The question is: What would they do now?"